The Big Country, which is on BBC 2 today, is considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made.

The Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston and Burl Ives was the favourite movie of sitting US President Eisenhower, who screened the picture at the White House for four consecutive nights.

However, shooting the story of a New Englander arriving in the Old West to a family feud was no easy feat at all for the actors.

Jean Simmons was “so…